lorna simpson

Lorna Simpson : Manipulation of Spectatorship in the photographic works of Lorna Simpson

Introduction

Lorna Simpson is a highly recognized African-American artist who has expressed her creativity and skill through photography , and more recently , movies . She did her graduation in the School of Visual Arts in New York and her post graduation at the University of California in San Diego (ArtFacts .net , 2007 . Her work is somewhat abstract and has a very subtle meaning . She usually uses literary elements such as metaphor biography , portraiture and narrative fin her work . Many of her

works deal with concepts of `blackness ' and `feminism (Armendi , 2001 . Lorna Simpson became popular in the mid-1980s with her large scale black and white photographic works of art that combined photo and text in a novel manner . What is most characteristic about her work is that she always makes the spectator think , self-reflect , and finally arrive at the meaning of the work . This gives the viewer the thrill of having solved a puzzle . In the words of Marianne Kurylo-Litvak , Simpson manipulates spectatorship by utilizing the Brechtian method of distanciation that relies on audience participation through speculative detachment (Kurylo-Litvak , 1998

General Laura Simpson uses a technique commonly known as photo text , which combines figurative or nonfigurative photos and text . Usually , in the works of Lorna Simpson , the figures have their backs turned towards the viewer . Even when it is not so , they do not make eye contact with the viewer . Her female figures are simply dressed and do not follow evoke any open feelings as most figures in photography do . But the author in a manipulative manner uses these obscure figures as a screen to portray the discrimination in our society of the black woman . She presents them with a sort of curious detachment that can be seen in investigative films . Sometimes , she uses pieces of texts along with the mural-size huge black and white images that give only partial meaning to her work The rest of the meaning has to be pieced together by the thinking viewer . More recently , in her work that is being exhibited at Sean Kelly , one finds that Simpson has also given up the use of the human figure . Instead , she presents empty , urban and natural settings . The emptiness of these works seems to express human loss and desire in a very effective and powerful manner (Heartney , 1995

One finds that most of the works of Lorna Simpson focus on sadness . The texts seem to talk about the emptiness and loneliness in urban life . The emptiness of relationshions in urban settings . The lack of color and polish in the black and white photographs creates a sense of mystery and helps to dig out faded memories within the viewer . Simpson often removes the background or the faces of her subjects so that she can remove any kind of identity to the image (Morgan , 1990

The power of the artist in bending the viewer to her angle is clear in the way she uses the black female...